Antarctica’s Lake Vostok, located under about 2 miles of ice and snow, isn’t as barren as most thought. According to recent analysis thousands of organisms of different kinds - and maybe even a few fish – probably call it home.

Antarctica’s Lake Vostok, located under about 2 miles of ice and snow, isn’t as barren as most thought.

According to recent analysis the subsurface lake is likely filled with life. Thousands of organisms of different kinds - and maybe even a few fish – probably call it home.

When analyzing ice cores from drilling just above the lake’s surface, scientists unexpectedly found a wealth of life forms.

In total nearly 3500 DNA strains have been identified. 95 percent of them belong to bacteria, but the remaining 5 percent show evidence of life in varying levels of complexity.

Evidence of fungi were present as well as arthropods, water fleas, and a mollusk.

The most exciting find was fish guts bacteria, inspiring hope that fish are still down there.

Not bad for a body of water that’s been cut off from the rest of the world for an estimated 15 million years.

The presence of the lake at large was first suggested in the late 1800s, but not confirmed until 1991.